Those arrested in Hyderabad were being guided by ISIS: NIA

The NIA on Thursday claimed that the five persons arrested in Hyderabad on Wednesday were getting instructions from the Middle East-based terrorist organisation ISIS for planning and carrying out terrorist activities in India.

NIA produced the accused Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani alias Ibbu, Habeeb Mohammed alias Sir, Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi and Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan before the third Metropolitian Sessions Judge court in Hyderabad which sent them to 14-day judicial custody. NIA's application for their custody for interrogation is likely to come up for hearing today.

The remand report submitted to the court said the accused had also acquired weapons and explosive materials to carry out violent terrorist attacks and were in touch with the ISIS

They were getting directions for planning and execution of terrorist activities in



India from ISIS, the report added. Following its prior investigation, on June 22 NIA had lodged an FIR for "criminal conspiracy to wage war against the Government of India" by collecting weapons and explosive materials by targeting public places, religious sites and sensitive government buildings in various parts of India.

According to the Central agency, the gang was preparing improvised explosive devices for carrying out blasts, and was being guided by an online handler, suspected to be based in Iraq/Syria.

Along with explosive materials, the agency recovered two semi-automatic pistols with ammunition, an air gun with telescopic sight and shooting practice target boards, a large number of digital gadgets including six laptops, about 40 mobile phones, 32 SIM cards, and a large number of hard disks, memory cards, pen drives and tabs during its searches.